A woman braces against cold in Montreal, Canada
IN PHOTO: A woman braces against the wind and cold as she walks in Montreal, January 7, 2014. A deadly blast of arctic air shattered decades-old temperature records as it enveloped Central and Atlantic Canada and the eastern United States on Tuesday, canceling thousands of flights. Reuters/Stringer

Three Canadian cities made it to the top charts as the most liveable cities in the world. The annual Global Liveability Report, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit, honoured the Canadian cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary.

The Ca News reported that the top ranked five cities have been specially hailed for being the places totally unaffected by any kind of turbulence.

Key Parameters

The scores were calculated on the basis of a city's relative comfort in 30 topics, described in five categories such as stability, education, infrastructure, healthcare, culture and environment.

Then the cities were assigned a score between one and 100. While 1 stood for being "tolerable" 100 was the score for "ideal". The report also remarked that many cities in the list are in a position to foster a range of recreational activities without being bogged down by high levels of crime or overburdened infrastructure.

The list has Melbourne in Australia topping the charts, closely followed by Vienna. Vancouver came third in the liveability index with Toronto occupying fourth place and Calgary and Adelaide coming in a tie for taking the fifth slot.

Damascus, the capital of Syria, was worst liveable city in a list that carried names such as Dhaka, Bangladesh; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Lagos, Nigeria; and Karachi, Pakistan.

Impact of Political Unrest

The report noted that several cities suffered a decline in their liveability due to unrest in their areas. If political tensions in Ukraine downgraded cities of Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg, recurring clashes pulled down Bangkok and Syrian capital Damascus.

The survey studied 140 cities worldwide. It observed that since 2009, the average liveability across the world has fallen by 0.7 per cent. Perhaps more drastic was the 1.3 per cent fall in stability and safety.

The report noted that unrest has negatively impacted many cities on the list. But the top 10 cities on the list were absolutely unaffected.

A Class Apart

The top-tier cities which remained unaffected by international troubles were the cities of Canada and Australia. The report noted that the common factor in the high-scoring cities was that they are all mid-sized cities belonging to wealthier countries with a lower population density. Interestingly, eight of the top 10 scoring cities are in Australia and Canada.